“In this contest, your task is to design a logo and banner picture for Open Education News.

The blog authors have different backgrounds but something great in common: the passionate belief that Open Educational Resources are a great way to produce quality educational materials that are far more accessible and flexible than traditional, commercial materials.

Open Education News provides readers with a daily dose of the most relevant open education and open educational resources news from around the world.”

The prize for the winning logo are t-shirts from CC’s much coveted schwag collection and the Cape Town Open Education Declaration. So if you are suddenly hit with inspiration during your lunch break tomorrow, read the contest rules and submit a logo by May 31!

Increasingly, creative types are harnessing what I’ve begun to call “the T-shirt economy”—paying for bits by selling atoms. Charging for content online is hard, often impossible. Even 10 cents for a download of something like Red vs. Blue might drive away the fans. So instead of fighting this dynamic, today’s smart artists are simply adapting to it.

Their algorithm is simple: First, don’t limit your audience by insisting they pay to see your work. Instead, let your content roam freely online, so it generates as large an audience as possible. Then cash in on your fans’ desire to sport merchandise that declares their allegiance to you.

While Thompson doesn’t mention CC directly (he does mention Jonathan Coulton, a CC-staff favorite and current partner in our fundraising drive), he hints at the mentality behind our CC+ initiative and generally argues that openness is an important component of functional business models going forward.